Bahá'u'lláh Imprisoned at Ámul

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, with details from Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers. Words in quotation marks are as those books record them.

In the winter of 1848–49 a band of Bábís, led by Mullá Ḥusayn and Quddús, was besieged in the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán. Bahá'u'lláh had visited the fort earlier, and Shoghi Effendi writes in God Passes By that the spirit of its defenders must be attributed "in no small measure" to His counsels and exhortations.

He then set out from Núr to join them, with a few companions. Nabíl records that guards had been posted to keep any help from reaching the fort. The party was seized on the way and taken to Ámul.

Shoghi Effendi writes that it was for the sake of those defenders, whom He had intended to join, that He suffered His second imprisonment, "this time in the masjid of Ámul to which He was led, amidst the tumult raised by no less than four thousand spectators."

In the masjid the acting governor had gathered the 'ulamás to question the captives. Bahá'u'lláh answered their questions, but the leading siyyids demanded that the Bábís be put to death, and the acting governor, to calm the crowd, ordered the captives to be beaten. Nabíl records that Bahá'u'lláh interceded for each of His companions, and then said: "None of these men are guilty of any crime. If you insist on inflicting your punishment, I offer Myself as a willing Victim of your chastisement." The acting governor gave orders that He alone should suffer it.

He was bastinadoed, beaten on the soles of the feet, in the namáz-khánih (prayer-room) of the mujtahid of the town "until His feet bled." Afterwards He was confined in the private residence of the governor. The leading mullá denounced Him bitterly, and a mob besieged the residence, "pelted Him with stones, and hurled in His face the foulest invectives."

Nabíl adds that it was the acting governor who, at some risk to himself, had Bahá'u'lláh brought to that house, where he treated Him as an honoured guest. When the governor returned to Ámul he rebuked those who had demanded Bahá'u'lláh's death, and a few days later he arranged for Him and His companions to leave safely for Ṭihrán.

The defenders of Ṭabarsí held out until the spring of 1849. Mullá Ḥusayn fell in the fighting, and after the fort was surrendered Quddús and most of the survivors were put to death. Bahá'u'lláh had not been allowed to reach them, but, as Shoghi Effendi writes, He had suffered for their sake.

This is a retelling. For the full accounts, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, chapter 5, and The Dawn-Breakers, chapter 19.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/